The college preparation industry rakes in millions annually, geared to helping young scholars get into prestigious institutions of higher learning.

Among the most prestigious is Wharton, the famed business School, which has now challenging applicants with a intriguing new requirement.

Melissa Korn of the Wall Street Journal has the details:

Business-school applicants try to impress schools with their management potential and entrepreneurial acumen. But one quality in perennially short supply is candor, as would-be M.B.A.s deliver the “right” answers instead of the real ones.

Hoping to elicit at least some unrehearsed honesty from prospective students, schools regularly tweak essay topics or add interview prompts. But nearly as soon as changes are announced, M.B.A. hopefuls rush to admission consultants seeking tips to ace the new challenge, and schools lament that they’re left with no better insights into applicants than they had the year before.

That cat-and-mouse game has been in full view this year amid changes to admissions procedures at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, which is interviewing applicants in groups, and Harvard Business School, which now asks hopefuls to write a postinterview reflection.

After a brief pilot, Wharton this year introduced a team-based discussion to its application process, inviting candidates to participate in a six-person, 35-minute discussion on a pre-assigned topic, such as how the school might invest in new projects.

The school advises candidates to spend about an hour preparing for the exercise, and the formal invitation even reminds them to “relax, be genuine” and “enjoy the opportunity for us to get to know you.”

But, applicants wonder, how “genuine” should they be? Some with leadership experience fear appearing too aggressive, while team players don’t want to come off as slackers.

Days after interview invitations were released, scores of applicants turned to online message boards seeking fellow M.B.A. hopefuls with whom they could practice group-discussion tactics….

Applicants walk away with away with a taste of Wharton’s culture, says Ankur Kumar, director of M.B.A. admissions and financial aid, and, with luck, admissions officials learn how an applicant works in a group setting.

And it wasn’t long before consultants moved in, too. Last month Accepted.com, a Los Angeles-based firm, began offering a $500 online mock interview for Wharton applicants modeled on the group sessions. Another admission consulting firm, mbaMission, is charging $400 for a practice group discussion. About 100 applicants have run through that firm’s trials so far.

Admissions officers are not pleased with the work around:

Dee Leopold, managing director of M.B.A. admissions and financial aid at HBS, says she’s disturbed that applicants feel the need to seek assistance on something intended to be an impromptu exercise.

“I would be surprised and disappointed,” she says, “if candidates invited to interview at HBS didn’t feel confident and capable of writing an email to answer the prompt: ‘You’ve just had your HBS interview. Did we get to know you?'”